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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26527603">Stuck in the multiverse</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElaneTheTired/pseuds/ElaneTheTired'>ElaneTheTired</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Gravity Falls</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Badass Dipper Pines, Badass Ford Pines, But at least he and Ford are fucked together, Dipper is fucked, Multiverse, Not literally, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The Portal (Gravity Falls), They will find their own way home, it malfunctioned, majorly</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 05:15:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,384</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26527603</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElaneTheTired/pseuds/ElaneTheTired</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The portal incident went majorly wrong, and, instead of returning Stan's twin, it took Mabel's. Now Ford and Dipper struggle through the unpredictable hardships of the multiverse, while the twins they left on earth struggle to get them back.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dipper Pines &amp; Ford Pines, Mabel Pines &amp; Stan Pines</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>45</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Stuck in the multiverse</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As he crept along the towering ridge of crumbling stone, Dipper considered, for the umpteenth time, that the multiverse was probably more hostile than it was strange. Or rather, it was hostile in an infinity of strange ways. Take the dimension he was currently stuck in as an example.</p><p> </p><p>He hadn't explored much of it yet, having only arrived what was probably a few weeks ago, but as far as he could see were sprawled the magnificent, huge ruins of what was once probably a very advanced civilization. Even the smallest of the crumbling, shattered buildings around him were the size of skyscrapers, built out of stone and metal (but no glass, like it always was in post apocalyptic movies in his own dimension). Even ruined as they were, Dipper could guess at the flowing, mesmerizing shapes they were built in originally. He was also pretty sure some of them used to hover in the sky before whatever had befallen this civilization happened, as evidenced by the occasional huge crash-site, reminiscent of a meteor crater.</p><p> </p><p>The sky here was constantly grey, obscured by thick clouds he hoped consisted of smoke (as opposed to various poisonous gases that would eventually rain on him). He hadn't been able to see any celestial bodies since he arrived, but the difference in lighting and temperature between day and night was still drastic enough to be perceptible. Dipper was pretty sure it should be colder, considering the fact that the sun was permanently obscured, but he was thankful it wasn't. One of the things you learned very quickly in the multiverse was not to look a gift horse in the mouth, as it was liable to grow another head with multiple eyes and poisonous teeth and bite you.</p><p> </p><p>Another thing he had learned the hard way was how to avoid detection, which he was putting to good use right now. As he reached the top of the ridge he stayed low, crouched behind a bent slab of metal with faded, weather-worn writing on it in a language he didn't know. He peered carefully into the crater on the other side.</p><p> </p><p>A flock of small creatures, barely distinguishable in the distance caught his eye, floating lazily in his general direction. He squinted in an attempt to see which kind of flock it was. The creatures he had encountered so far in this barren dimension split into four, equally bizarre categories: eye-bats, mouth-bats, nose-bats, and ear-bats. </p><p> </p><p>They were all around the size of grunkle stan's fist, with a wing-span about the length of Dipper's arm, and lived in flocks of ten to twenty. Every flock had an attack force of mouth-bats in it, and only one other species of bats, who acted mainly as scouts, no doubt due to their heightened perception. The scout species all seemed to hate each other, and were likely to attack on sight (or smell, or sound, he guessed), though ear and nose bats were more likely to attack eye-bats than each other.</p><p> </p><p>Dipper would have spent hours theorizing, observing and writing in the journal he still carried in his torn backpack, if not for another fact he had discovered very early on: they, like most species in the multiverse, were all equally happy to attack him, so most of his time here was spent avoiding them, and occasionally hunting for the weaker flock-members to take down, seeing as they were the only source of food in this otherwise barren land (it was gross, especially the eye-bats, but another lesson the multiverse taught extremely effectively was that beggars can't be choosers).</p><p> </p><p>Eye-bats, he finally concluded, nodding to himself. That was good. They were probably the easiest kind to avoid - stay out of sight behind all the rubble, and you'll be fine. Concealing his smell and all the sounds he made was far more tricky. He started descending into the crater, careful to stay hidden behind the rubble and giving the creatures a wide berth for good measure.</p><p> </p><p>As he reached the bottom Dipper decided to start looking for a place to camp for the night. It was getting dark, and he needed to find shelter before he lost the ability to see anything in the gloom. His flashlight ran out of batteries months ago (was it really months? It was hard to tell when some of the dimensions he had been in didn't even have day-night cycles. It felt like at least a few months though) and even if it hadn't, it was far too conspicuous to use. The eye-bats would all be upon him in moments.</p><p> </p><p>He elected to sleep underground again, in one of the rooms that had survived the destruction, albeit buried beneath the rubble. The layers of stone and metal were effective at masking his smell and any sounds he made as he slept, and the bats all seemed reluctant to go underground, as the spaces there were usually small and constricting for their wings. Dipper suspected there were other creatures that lived underground he hadn't encountered yet, but judging by the fact they hadn't attacked him by now they were either harmless or just very few, and he would take that over the plentiful, blood-thirsty bats any day.</p><p> </p><p>He would need to find a source of water soon, as well. The flasks strapped to his hips were nearly empty, as were the ones in his bag (he had stolen them a few dimensions ago from the squid-like creatures who lived there, right before they sacrificed him to their god by throwing him into an open rift. Barbarians.) Luckily, the civilization that had lived here seemed to have relied on water as well, and the occasional building still had functioning piping, somehow.</p><p> </p><p>He was jerked out of his thoughts by the sudden sound of loud shrieking, typical to the mouth-bats. Dipper froze, head turning instinctively in the direction of the flock he had seen earlier, but they kept floating peacefully up the crater wall, out of hearing range. Must be another flock he hadn't seen then, but what were they attacking?</p><p> </p><p>Usually when they clashed with each other, the mouth-bats were too occupied chewing enemies to make too much of a ruckus, and he only heard their grating battle cries when he himself was their intended target. The half healed bite marks on his arms throbbed dully at the thought, but he pushed the sensation down in favour of concentrating.</p><p> </p><p>By the sound of it, there were at least twenty mouth-bats, which indicated two flocks have unified against a common enemy, which was rare enough in and of itself. It also indicated that whatever they were fighting was dangerous, if it wasn't dead by now. </p><p> </p><p>Dipper's new, hard won battle instincts were screaming at him to run as far away from the commotion as possible, then burrow himself underground for the night and forget about this anomaly. His old but trusty common sense (of which, granted, he had never had much, especially when it came to self preservation) was vocally agreeing supporting that course of action. Still, he hesitated.</p><p> </p><p>Part of him calmly pointed out that whatever the bats were fighting might be just as, or even more dangerous than them, and if it was native to this dimension, Dipper would do well to gather as much information about it as he could while minimizing the risk via distraction by bats. He knew, however, that that was only a rationalization, his brain automatically trying to find excuses to support his natural curiosity. Dammit, he thought that months spent in almost constant mortal danger, under harsh, other-worldly conditions, chased by the most strange and ridiculous creatures, would rid him of the pesky thing, but apparently not.</p><p> </p><p>Before the battle of instincts and rationality inside his mind could come to a natural conclusion, he heard something that made him stop cold in his tracks.</p><p> </p><p>The sounds of the skirmish have been getting louder for the past few minutes, probably because the unknown target was running in Dipper's direction. Dipper still couldn't see the unfolding battle as it was just the other side of a small hill of rubble, but they were now close enough that he could discern sounds other than the mouth-bats' shrieking. Whatever intruded on the bats' territory must have a gun, he reflected, because those were definitely the sounds of a laser, just like they were depicted in his favourite sci-fi movies. But that wasn't what made his head spin with amazement and, for the first time since he crossed the border of his own dimension, a tiny sliver of hope.</p><p> </p><p>For interspersed with the sounds of angry shrieks and shooting was loud, and very colourful cursing. In <em> English </em>. A few months ago, Dipper would have been blushing furiously and covering his ears at the sound of some of the expletives piercing the air, but right now it was the sweetest sound in the world. </p><p> </p><p>Before the situation had fully registered in his tired, somewhat dehydrated brain, Dipper's legs were already moving. He scrambled frantically to the top of the hill, thankfully still in enough control of himself to stay quiet, as well as to take the high ground.</p><p> </p><p>Perched at the top of the hill he once again peered down to assess the situation. The stranger stood right beneath Dipper, back pressed against the somehow intact piece of wall that made up this side of the pile. Dipper couldn't make out many details from this angle, aside from the fact it was a tall, broad-shouldered man, wearing a scarf and a trenchcoat with a hood that concealed his face. </p><p> </p><p>He was surrounded on all sides by an abnormally large flock of nose and mouth bats, maybe thirty in all. Oh, that was bad. Those were the worst kind to get into a fight with - once they noticed you, the only way to get rid of them was to kill them all, because getting them off a scent they caught was practically impossible. He was keeping them somewhat at bay for now with quick shots from a futuristic laser-gun held in his right hand, but Dipper knew it wouldn't last forever. </p><p> </p><p>Even if the gun didn't run out of charges, the bats were too quick and maneuverable to actually get hit most of the time, the shots serving only as an intimidation tactic, really, as opposed to reducing their number. As the battle wore on, there wasn't a significant decrease in the number of bats, but the stranger was getting tired, Dipper could see it in the slowly increasing sluggishness of his movements. And the bats would only need one small opening to devour him alive.</p><p> </p><p>Dipper was once more faced with a difficult decision. On the one hand, he could run. The nose bats were too busy to notice him right now, so if he took advantage of their distraction and covered his scent properly, he could make it out of this scott free. This course of action would also have the advantage of <em> not having to fight a mob of thirty dangerous flying predators </em>. It was, overall, the most logical thing to do in the face of danger - cut your losses and scram.</p><p> </p><p>But… that course of action also had two major disadvantages. One, he would leave this stranger, a fellow human being, to die. Dipper never claimed to be a hero, but he still considered himself a good man (well, teen), and leaving someone to die without even trying to help went against his morals. And two, he would leave this stranger, a fellow human being, maybe the <em> only </em>fellow human being in the multiverse outside their original dimension, to die. And he would stay alone again, maybe forever, in this vast, vast multiverse with no rime or reason to it, and no compassion either.</p><p> </p><p>There wasn't really a choice, was there?</p><p> </p><p>Dipper quickly slung the bag over his shoulder and started digging in it. Triumphantly, he took out several vaguely ball-shaped objects that were held together with a thin, cloth like material. Dipper had made them himself out of scraps of watter-proof cloth he had gotten somewhere. Inside was contained a putrid smelling liquid he had stumbled upon in this dimension in some half destroyed, leaking canisters. He had made them specifically to battle the nose-bats by overpowering their very sensitive sense of smell. There were only three left now, and he had wanted to save them for a rainy day, but he guessed this was as rainy as it got around here. </p><p> </p><p>He took his slingshot from his belt (also self made, but sturdy enough and functional. Dipper was quite proud of this specific creation), and hastily gathered a few dozen pebbles from the ground for ammunition. With all his war supplies ready, he took a deep breath, then stood up straight and chucked one of the stink-bombs at the cloud of screeching monsters beneath.</p><p> </p><p>The effect was even better than he had expected. The bomb tore on impact, hitting a particularly close-knit pack of nose-bats and spraying stinky liquid everywhere. The affected bats immediately started darting around like crazy, spreading the smell even further and interfering with the mouth-bats' attacks. Dipper threw another bomb, spreading the chaos to the whole flock now.</p><p> </p><p>After a brief look in Dipper's direction (he thought it was surprised, but couldn't be sure with the hood hiding the man's face) the stranger turned to his confunded enemies and started taking advantage of the provided distraction. With the bats all flocking together and unable to coordinate themselves it was much easier to hit, and they started going down one by one, courtesy of the man's gun. Dipper helped as best he could, aiming rocks at the wings of creatures who got too close to either of them, or just separated from the pack. It was a surprisingly effective tactic, as their wings seemed to be a particularly weak spot.</p><p> </p><p>The battle didn't last long after that. The last bat suffered an untimely death by laser, and Dipper spun his head around, frantically searching for stragglers or other packs that were attracted by the comotion. For once, the coast seemed to be clear. After another lingering, suspicious glance at the darkening horizon, Dipper nodded to himself and jumped down, landing in a somewhat clumsy roll near the stranger. He stood up and brushed himself off as best he could. Not that it helped much, his clothes (and skin, for that matter) hadn't really been clean since he left his own dimension.</p><p> </p><p>The stranger was looking at him, head cocked curiously to one side. It was somewhat unnerving, especially because Dipper still couldn't see his face, and he had to suppress the urge to shrink in on himself. He had faced so many things scarier than a human these last few months, he could do this. (A small, primal part of him whispered that although other monsters he faced might have been big and scary, this one had a gun).</p><p> </p><p>The silence was starting to stretch uncomfortably long when the stranger finally spoke in a deep, cultured voice.</p><p> </p><p>"Well, thank you for the save, I guess. I was in quite the tight spot there." The hesitant tone belied his confident posture. Then the man seemed to remember something. "Oh, right, sorry, let me find my universal translator…" his hands were already searching in the multitude of pockets in his coat.</p><p> </p><p>Dipper was surprised for a moment, wondering why on not-earth the man thought he would need a translator, until it occurred to him, for the first time, how he must look form an outside point of view - a small, humanoid creature wrapped from head to toe in an ill-fitting assortment of clothes from different dimensions, every inch of skin covered against the cold, dust, and injury, eyes hidden behind a cracked glass visor, wielding primitive, improvised weapons. Yea, after the time he spent in the multiverse, Dipper wouldn't have assumed he was human either, definitely not as his first guess, at least.</p><p> </p><p>“No need for that,” he hurried to interrupt the stranger, lowering his visor and the scarf covering the lower part of his face. “I speak English.”</p><p> </p><p>The stranger froze with his hands still in his pockets, taken aback and probably unsure how to proceed. Dipper didn’t know, either, but ploughed on anyway, if somewhat awkwardly.</p><p> </p><p>“And you’re welcome. I was just passing through and saw you might need a bit of help. That was a really large flock, and the nose-bats are especially nasty. Almost impossible to lose, too. They’re the least common, though, despite the biological advantage in seeking prey, which is weird. Not that I have managed to gather any actual statistics or anything, but I’m pretty sure it’s accurate, and you encountered two flocks at once, which is just super unlucky...” Dipper trailed off, realizing he went on a bit of a tangent, and coughed to hide his embarrassment. At least the dirt (and improvised bandage) on his face served to hide his blush. The stranger was still silent.</p><p> </p><p>“Sorry for that.” he opted for an apology, “It’s just I haven’t been able to talk to anyone in a while. You’re the first human I have encountered out here.” It was an olive branch, a probe sent into unfamiliar territory. If his guess was correct, then Dipper might be the first human the stranger  has encountered in a while, too. He hoped that would be enough to keep things civil. (Even though he really wanted to believe that a fellow human would be an ally, he was prepared for the possibility that the man would try to take advantage, or even be outright hostile).</p><p> </p><p>Finally, the man seemed to recover from his shock. “Oh, it’s quite alright!” he hurried to reassure Dipper, waving his hands in an appeasing gesture. “I haven’t seen other members of our species myself in… a very long time. I am really delighted to meet you!” it sounded genuine, and dipper could almost imagine the man smiling enthusiastically under his hood. Then his voice became concerned, the imaginary smile fading to a worried frown.</p><p> </p><p>“I must say, I am quite surprised though”, he continued cautiously. “What <em> is </em>a child as young as you doing so far away from home?”</p><p> </p><p>Dipper took a subconscious step back, hunching defensively. His open, excited expression became blank, with only a hint of a scowl around the edges. “It wasn’t voluntary, if that’s what you’re asking.” he said flatly, with no intention of elaborating any further.</p><p> </p><p>The man thankfully picked up on Dipper’s suddenly suspicious behaviour and ceased the questioning, raising his hands up placatingly. “It’s fine if you don’t want to talk about it. And I completely understand if you don’t trust me. It’s a good thing, really. Paranoia and skepticism are two of the most important tools necessary for survival in the multiverse.” Dipper’s expression didn’t change, but his shoulders relaxed just a fraction.</p><p> </p><p>“Speaking of scepticism,” he said, attempting to sound casual, “don’t you think it would be fair to show me your face, since I’ve shown you mine? I would like some more evidence to support my assumption that you’re human, aside from your knowledge of our language, as flimsy as that evidence might be.” Dipper remembered with a shiver the shapeshifter he had encountered back in Gravity Falls, and it’s cousins he saw in one of the first dimensions he had stumbled upon. Both of those instances were distinctly unpleasant, and he had the scars to prove it, both physical and mental.</p><p> </p><p>The stranger started at the request, as if genuinely startled. “Oh, of course! I am sorry, that was incredibly rude of me. It has been a while since I had any real company, you see.” the man sounded sheepish, hands flitting to undo his scarf and lower the hood as he spoke.</p><p> </p><p>Dipper waited with bated breath as the man’s face was revealed, breath that came out of him in a rush as his eyes roved over painfully familiar, yet foreign features, and the six-fingered, gloved hand offered to him.</p><p> </p><p>“You can call me Ford. Pleased to meet you.” said the man, and suddenly a lot of things made sense, and a lot more suddenly made none at all.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh...” Breathed Dipper.</p>
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